BISCUITS BASEBALL: Ensberg scheduled to be back for fourth season as field manager
Morgan Ensberg will return for a fourth season as the Biscuits manager. (File Photo)
STAFF REPORT
Morgan Ensberg will return to manage the Montgomery Biscuits in 2023, the team announced on Tuesday.
The Biscuits’ coaching staff will feature several newcomers including pitching coach Steve Merriman, bench coach, Frank Jagoda and conditioning coach Austin Teets. Wuarnner Rincones will return as hitting coach and James Ramsdell will serve as athletic trainer.
Ensberg enters his fourth season managing Montgomery, which has made the playoffs every season under his leadership, including last year’s team which finished first in the division before falling to Pensacola in the Division series.
Ensberg led the Biscuits to a franchise-record 88 wins in 2019, earning Southern League Manager of the Year honors. The 88 wins were the secnd-most among all minor league teams behind Class-A Delmarva (90) of the Orioles organization.
He joined the Rays after managing for two seasons in the Astros system, with Class-A Buies Creek in the Carolina League in 2018 and Short-A Tri-City in the New York-Penn League in 2017. He spent the 2016 season as the Astros minor league mindset coach, the 2014-15 seasons as the Astros minor league special assignment coach and the 2013 season as the infield coach at Class-A Lancaster.
Morgan joined the coaching ranks in 2011 and spent two seasons as a hitters and infielders coach for the University of California San Diego. He played parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Astros (2000, 2002-07), Padres (2007) and Yankees (2008). Ensberg was named the Astros MVP in 2005, when they won the NL pennant and came to Rays camp as a non-roster invite in 2009, but was released at the end of spring training.
Merriman, the new pitching coach, joins the Rays from the University of Michigan, where he spent the last two seasons (2021-22) as pitching coach. Prior to the Wolverines, he spent time in the Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets and Detroit Tigers organizations.
Rincones led a high-powered 2022 offense in Montgomery. He worked 10 years (1996-2005) at the Chicago White Sox Venezuelan Academy as a hitting coach, infield instructor and scout. He played five years (1991-95) as an infielder in the White Sox system, reaching as high as Class-A South Bend of the Midwest League in 1995.
Jagoda, the new Biscuits’ bench coach, joined the Rays organization in 2020 when he was slated to be a member of the Princeton Rays staff until the MiLB season was canceled. In 2021, he was part of the FCL Rays staff that helped lead the team to the best record in the circuit and one of the top winning percentages in all of MiLB. Jagoda previously spent two seasons with the Minnesota Twins, serving as rehabilitation pitching coach in 2018 and a coach for the Fort Myers Miracle in 2019.
Ramsdell completed athletic training internships with the Rays in 2012-13 and finished his master’s degree in sport management from East Carolina University in 2013, where he worked with the men’s and women’s swimming and diving, softball, and track and field teams. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in athletic training from Salem State University (Mass.) in 2010.
Teets, conditioning coach, spent last season as an assistant strength and conditioning coordinator in the Seattle Mariners organization. He has previous experience as a strength coach at Elmira College and New York Sport and Fitness. Last May, he earned a masters degree in management at Elmira College.
The Biscuits are scheduled to open the season on the road at Pensacola on Friday, April 7. The team opens the home portion of the schedule on Tuesday, April 11 against Tennessee.
Visit biscuitsbaseball.com for ticket information.